Hawthorn AFLW Senior Coach Bec Goddard has urged her young team to play better footy for longer after her side went down to Fremantle by 13 points at Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Saturday afternoon.
A scoreless first term from the Hawks had them on the back foot from the get-go, prompting Goddard to deliver a stern quarter-time message to fire up her team for the rest of the game.
To their credit, the Hawks responded with three goals to Freo’s two from then on, leaving Goddard to rue her team’s slow start.
“You don’t really want to have to wait until quarter time and deliver a message like that to get going,” Goddard said.
“If we had gotten going right from the start, the outcome might’ve been a bit different.”
Although disappointed with the result, Goddard acknowledged that a young team can often be more susceptible to inconsistency.
The coach did praise the work of star midfielder Jasmine Fleming though, who stood up with 18 disposals, four tackles and four marks in her first hit-out against the Dockers.
“We are a really young team,” Goddard said.
“I thought Jas had a really fantastic game.
“We need all of our young players to keep doing that and doing it for longer.”
Hawthorn will now look to bounce back against Melbourne on Friday night at Kinetic Stadium, Frankston.
Tickets for the game are just $10 with kids permitted to enter for free.
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Hear more from Goddard and Fleming below.
